2015 an “important year” for Pfizer’s IO pipeline, analysts say

Pfizer recently discussed its immunotherapy pipeline with Leerink Research. John Lin, VP of experimental medicine/cancer immunotherapy and James Merson, SVP & CSO of vaccine immunotherapeutics from Pfizer told analysts that management is confident in its pipeline due to its investigational antibody 4-1BB (PF-05082566), which began trials this past summer in liquid and solid tumors, as well as in combinations with Roche’s Rituxan in non-Hodgkin lymphoma and Merck’s recently approved Keytruda. Leerink’s Seamus Fernandez wrote that Pfizer’s 4-1BB is keeping pace with competition, too—Bristol-Myers Squibb’s urelumab, which stalled in trials due to liver toxicity concerns. “We anticipate plenty of room for Pfizer’s immunoncology development efforts and believe 2015 will be an important, kick-start year,” he wrote.